you might place both dropbox.py and the starter-script into a different folder than the one created by the Dropbox-installer (which is ~/.dropbox-dist). E.g. use ~/.dropbox for both files, this should do the trick. Dropbox itself uses a custom build of Python, with some not-so-compatible libraries coming along.

Now, once we have installed Dropbox, we might want Dolphin to show the status of files and folders in our Dropbox. Well, there’s a Plugin available for download in Dolphin’s settings that adds some Dropbox-specific menu entries to the context menu, but it doesn’t provide icon overlays. Another plugin written by Thomas Richard, however not available via the wizard, does.

You can download, compile and install the plugin with the following commands (you need CMake installed for this):

The kde4-config-Part was taken from a commend at the Plugin’s “Homepage” and ensures that the plugin get’s installed into the right directory. After installing, you have to restart dolphin; after that, you get some pretty cool icons floating above the file and folder icons in your Dolphin indicating the sync-status of your files!

******************************** ERROR ****************************************
* The version of gcc in the path does not match the version of gcc used to *
* compile the currently running kernel. This can cause unpredictable *
* behavior in kernel drivers and should be fixed. *
* gcc version: gcc-Version 4.7.2 (GCC) *
* kernel compiled with: 4.7.2 *
******************************** ERROR ****************************************

# check the version of gcc that is in the path and ensure that it is the
# same version of gcc that was used to compile the currently running kernel
if [ -z "$KERNELTARGET" -o "$KERNELTARGET" == "`$UNAME -r`" ]; then
currentGCCVersion=`$CC -v 2>&1 | tail -n 1 | $SED 's/.*gcc[a-zA-Z (]\+\([0-9][^ )]\+\).*/\1/'`
kernelGCCVersion=`$CAT /proc/version | $SED 's/.*gcc[a-zA-Z (]\+\([0-9][^ )]\+\).*/\1/'`
if [ "$currentGCCVersion" != "$kernelGCCVersion" ]; then
if [ "${currentGCCVersion%\.*}" != "${kernelGCCVersion%\.*}" ]; then
echo "******************************** ERROR ****************************************"
echo "* The version of gcc in the path does not match the version of gcc used to *"
echo "* compile the currently running kernel. This can cause unpredictable *"
echo "* behavior in kernel drivers and should be fixed. *"
echo "* gcc version: $currentGCCVersion *"
echo "* kernel compiled with: $kernelGCCVersion *"
echo "******************************** ERROR ****************************************"
return $statusFail
else
echo "******************************** WARNING **************************************"
echo "* The version of gcc in the path does not match the version of gcc used to *"
echo "* compile the currently running kernel. This can cause unpredictable *"
echo "* behavior in kernel drivers and should be fixed. *"
echo "* gcc version: $currentGCCVersion *"
echo "* kernel compiled with: $kernelGCCVersion *"
echo "******************************** WARNING **************************************"
fi
fi
fi

Failure : "filemgr.cpp", line 4145
LabVIEW version 6.1
For assistance in resolving this problem, please record the preceding information and navigate to www.ni.com/failure, or contact National Instruments.
Abgebrochen

This serves as an uncomplete and highly subjective list of things that should not happen in conjunction with software of any kind. Or, in other words: A guide to non-sucking (as in comfortable) software. And, well- the list is unordered to.

Entering Serial Numbers and or activation codes submitted by eMail or by any means electronically (should read: not written on paper) seems a good idea. But, please, allow me to copy and paste theese into the installer / activation form! Having to switch between or rearrange two windows to typewrite the code is so, erm, 80ies. This is exspecially important for keys containing dashes – either ignore them when beeing copied into the form, or don’t submit them in the first place!

Automatically connecting to the internet to perform update-checks on application startup might be neccessary to keep the software up to date. But, please, inform the user of what’s going on! Or at least ensure the program is connecting to any type of humam readable DNS name, like softwareupdate.yourcompany.tld. Something like “Application X/Y wants to connect to random-IP-address-in-IPV6” doesn’t look good in the firewall’s logs. Ah, by the way, it might be wise to register for correct reverse DNS lookup, too. Otherwise – how should I destinguish this search for updates from ET-App’s Phone-Home attempt?

Polls after deinstalling an application are something very similar to the above problem. There are numerous reasons why I might uninstall a certain application, but, cm’on – you could atleast ask me if I’d like to take part in such a poll, bevore you open the webbrowser! Depending on the System, the internet connection or other software or webpages currently open this might be totally unacceptable. And, by the way, nobody knows what’s submitted within the 500 characters long encoded GET-request anyway!

Error messages that read something like “Unexcepted Error”, “Unknown Error” or even nothing at all, like the specimen here, are useless. Normally programmers have to deliberately write atleast one line of code to display such a message, so there’s no “Unexpected Error” at all. There might be an unknown error – but this is not interesting for the user. So, please, spend some thime in designing meaninfull errormessages, messages that tell me something about the module, what was supposed to be done and give suggestions. This might be a task to perform for operation system manufaturers, too: create an API to show errormessages with a “tell me more”-button attached to it, leeding to whatever information there might exist on the error.

To be continued. And, by the way – this is ME commenting on YOU, so: comments disabled. Buha.